The Israeli and Palestinian leaders will today declare a formal end to more than four years of fighting at a summit in Egypt aimed at kick-starting peace efforts.
The mutual declaration of cessation of hostilities will be made this afternoon at a landmark meeting between the Palestinian President, Mr Mahmoud Abbas, and the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh.
Today's announcement at the highest-level meeting between both sides for four years signals a vital step towards reviving the long stagnant internationally backed "road map" for a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.
It comes amid signs of a reinvigorated US commitment to peace in the region with a visit by the US Secretary of State, Ms Condoleezza Rice, and the acceptance by both Mr Sharon and Mr Abbas of invitations for separate talks with President Bush in the White House in the spring.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators finalised the details of today's agreement during summit preparations last night. "The most important thing at the summit will be a mutual declaration of cessation of violence against each other," said Mr Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator. He said the agreement also includes the establishment of joint committees to determine criteria for the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails and to oversee the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestinian cities on the West Bank.
An Israeli government official confirmed the ceasefire agreement, adding that the deal would also include an end to Palestinian incitement. Official Israeli sources said the text of the agreement was to be finalised last night.
Adding force to any announcement from the summit will be the presence of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who invited the leaders, and Jordan's King Abdullah.
In the past, US intervention has been necessary to secure any major advances in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, but Ms Rice said yesterday it would be good for regional leaders to push forward on their own.
Ms Rice, who held talks with Mr Abbas at his Ramallah headquarters yesterday, said Washington would dispatch a high-level "security co-ordinator" to the region and send more than $40 million in immediate aid to the Palestinians.
Ms Rice said Gen William E. Ward, the former head of a NATO force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was chosen for the job of security co-ordinator and would supervise, among other things, reform of the Palestinian security forces.
Ms Rice urged both sides to make "maximum effort" to seize the renewed chance for peace. "We will be very active," Ms Rice said at a joint news conference with Mr Abbas in Ramallah, prior to her departure from the region.
Hopes for an end to decades of conflict have increased since Mr Abbas was elected last month to succeed the late Yasser Arafat, and managed quickly to coax a de facto truce from militant groups. In advance of the summit, Israel announced its plans to release 900 Palestinian prisoners, withdraw its forces from five Palestinian cities and consider amnesty terms for fugitives.
In the Gaza Strip, where violence has dropped sharply, a spokesman for the militant Hamas group said it would "study the outcome of the summit" in Egypt and then decide on its course of action.